The present invention relates to a passive solar heating model that can be used for studying the daylight illumination of a scale model lot.
The design, construction and location of a manufacturing plant, office building, or residential building relative to a particular lot can significantly benefit from a study of the direction of the light from the sun throughout the year. Over the year the elevation of the sun changes, being lowest on December 21 and highest on June 21. The elevation of the sun is also dependent on the particular latitude where the lot is located. In addition, the elevation of the sun in the sky changes throughout the day as the sun rises and sets. The change in elevation of the sun in the sky changes the shadowing effects of trees, buildings, awnings, eaves, etc., which, in turn, materially affect heating and cooling costs during the year.
Various devices are available for studying the daylight illumination of a lot. Generally, these devices are suited for use only in laboratories, are complex, and are expensive. They are also used primarily for maximizing passive heating and generally are not well suited for maximizing cooling which is desirable during the summer. They do not utilize various size trees and eaves for studying a variety of shadowing effects. Finally, many of the devices cannot easily and accurately be adjusted for the particular parallel on which the lot is located and for the time or times of the year desired to be studied.